How to Read from the Torah

ONE WHO READS THE SCROLL EITHER STANDS OR SITS, ETC. How? In the past? Therefore not a priori? But was it not stated: It happened that R. Meir read it in the synagogue of Tiveon while sitting; he gave it to another who recited the benediction. So says the mishnah: One is permitted to read it standing; one is permitted to read it sitting. How may he give it to another who recited the benediction? One reads and another recites the benediction? R. Huna in the name of R. Jeremiah: From here [we learn] that the hearer is like the reader. It is written: which the king of Judaea read (2 Kings 22:16). But did not Shafan read it? But from here [we learn] that the hearer is like the reader.

Does one stand before a Torah scroll? R. Ḥilkiah [and] R. Simon in the name of R. Eleazar: One stands before her son; [then why] not all the more [so] before the Torah itself? The one who stands to read in the Torah, why does he stand? Because of its honor or the honor of the public? If you say, because of its honor, [then one must stand to read Torah] even in private. If you say, because of the honor of the public, [then does one stand] even [when reading Torah] alone? If you would say so, he will be lazy and not read.

Adapted from the translation of Heinrich W. Guggenheimer.

Credits

Adapted from The Jerusalem Talmud, ed. and trans. Heinrich W. Guggenheimer (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1999–2015), https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud/Yerushalmi. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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